health foods & supplements

Can you believe it’s already October?! It seems like fall is going by crazy fast. This weekend is already Canadian Thanksgiving 🙂 October brings with it pumpkin-flavoured everything. Pumpkin Spice Lattes- affectionately dubbed The PSL, pumpkin pie, pumpkin Oreos, pumpkin donuts, etc. It seems like every brand and store rolls out a pumpkin-something this time of year. Continue reading →

Kimchi is a new food to me- I’ve seen it all over Pinterest and finally decided to give it a try after finding out it’s super healthy! Turns out it’s the BOMB- full of flavour and a hint of spice 🙂

It’s a traditional Korean food, made from cabbage, ginger, hot pepper paste, garlic and other optional additions. The mixture is left on the kitchen counter at room temperature to ferment. The fermenting process is the key to this super-healthy food.

I made this recipe from Greatist. It was pretty easy to make and it’s very flavourful! I put the optional onion in mine- yum! It adds a punch to stirfries and rice and makes a great addition to sandwiches. Check out these inventive recipes that use kimchi!

Let me start by saying I love honey. It has this almost-magical quality to it: its sticky golden shimmer, the process in which it was made, its wholesome sweetness. Just amazing. It also tastes good in EVERYTHING. Seriously, everything.

I like to buy mine from the farmers’ market from a local farmer, I feel that it’s important to support the people in your own community and you get to see who helped make the jar of honey you’re buying! Also, some say taking local honey can help with pollen allergies by providing small doses of the pollen and therefore helping to make you immune, kind of like a vaccine. I’ve researched this claim and it is not that well supported by evidence but it is a possibility.

From the time we are little, we know honey in a hot cup of tea is the perfect cure for a cold.

Let’s talk about coconut oil! It has been all the rage lately and people are touting as a cure for everything {I’m looking at you, Pinterest}. Since there’s no way some oil from a coconut could really cure everything I’ve done the research and found some scientifically proven benefits of coconut oil to share with you all. Important note: these facts are for VIRGIN/UNREFINED coconut oil 🙂

5 Facts:

1. Coconut oil protects your hair: Coconut oil has been shown to prevent protein loss from your locks, and was much better at doing so than mineral oil and sunflower oil. Researchers believe this is due to the size of the fatty acid chains, they penetrate the hair shaft easily.

2. Coconut oil is good for a healthy heart: There is evidence that taking coconut oil can help prevent blood pressure elevations.

Probiotics and Why You Should Incorporate Them into Your Daily Routine

I recently started taking probiotic supplements daily and have been feeling great since! Probiotics are the “good bacteria” that have health benefits and help keep the “bad bacteria”in balance. These bacteria can be found in milk, yogurt, and cheese. You can also find probiotics supplements. Here are some reasons to increase your intake:

Prevent cavities: milk with probiotics was shown to decrease “bad bacteria” in the mouth and can therefore help prevent cavities.

Prevent diabetes: probiotic supplementation was found to help maintain normal insulin sensitivity.